Ashes 2023: “He isn’t moving 100 per cent right,” Boycott urges England to drop Bairstow for Manchester Test

Boycott feels Bairstow isn’t fit and he should be dropped from the team.

Facing a must-win situation after losing the first two Tests at Edgbaston and Lord’s, England fought back valiantly to register a three-wicket victory over Australia in the third Test at Headingley on Sunday (July 9) and kept the Ashes series alive.

Despite the win, batting legend Geoffrey Boycott urged the hosts to tweak their playing XI for the fourth Test at Old Trafford.

According to Boycott, wicketkeeper-batter Jonny Bairstow isn’t fit and he should be dropped from the team.

“My experience of playing at the highest level for so long and my common sense tells me that Jonny Bairstow is not fit,” Boycott wrote in his column for The Telegraph.

“He isn’t moving 100 per cent right and is short of competitive batting and wicketkeeping. He has been selected on last summer’s marvellous match-winning batting, but at this moment in time is a shadow of his best.”

In three Tests so far, Jonny Bairstow has registered scores of 78, 20, 16, 10, 12 and 5. No wonder, Boycott feels England’s gamble to play Bairstow “hasn’t worked”.

“It is very sad and outwardly he may show he is upbeat and full of exuberance, but when you fail on the big stage in the full glare of publicity there is nowhere to hide and deep down it affects your confidence,” he wrote.

“Someone needs to be brave for him and take him out of the limelight.”

By winning in Leeds, England kept the Ashes alive at 1-2 heading to Manchester, slated to host the fourth Test from July 19.